Small design, writing, programming, and consulting jobs are often awarded on the basis of an informal proposal or interview process. But larger projects often use a more elaborate Request for Proposal (RFP) approach. And in cases where the client is a public institution, these RFPs must, in most cases, be publiclyContinue Reading…

“One Riot. One Ranger.” It’s an old saying in Texas, based on an apocryphal story about the Texas Rangers’ 1896 response to an illegal boxing match in Dallas. Called in to stop the fight from happening, the state law enforcement organization sent just one Ranger, who was allegedly met atContinue Reading…

We’ve written quite a bit in previous posts about how to navigate the request for proposal process when you are the primary consultant responding to the RFP, and how to find RFPs that are right for your firm. But what if the services you provide are so specialized that they’reContinue Reading…

Crafting an effective response to a formal request for proposals (RFP) can be an overwhelming experience, especially if it’s not something that you do on a regular basis. Confusing instructions, multiple deadlines within a single RFP, unfamiliar scope descriptions, and limited opportunities for client interaction can all lead to variousContinue Reading…

Note: It appears that the proposal document is no longer available on the Texas Facilities Commission website, so the links at the bottom of this post don;t work. Sorry about that. We’ll update those if we can find the documents somewhere else. This one is a little different from mostContinue Reading…

It’s been a while since we posted anything new here on Pushing Snowballs. The biggest reason for this is probably the fact that we’ve been busy with the launch of our new marketing agency, Content & Context, and have been pouring all of our content-generation energy into that business andContinue Reading…

What are the questions you need to ask yourself before deciding whether or not to respond to an RFP or RFQ? That was what I had originally envisioned for this post. A list of questions to consider before you commit to expending the time (as well as covering the hardContinue Reading…

It is rare to get a request for a hard-copy firm overview any more. Almost everyone who asks for one wants it sent via email. The reasons for this shift aren’t hard to understand. The ability to view PDFs is now pretty much ubiquitous, and receiving information in this formatContinue Reading…

I have been reading Professional Services Marketing by Mike Schultz and John Doerr of the Wellesley Hills Group off and on for the past several weeks, and I finally got around to checking out the two free Excel spreadsheets that they created to accompany the book. These spreadsheets, which areContinue Reading…

As a marketer of a small firm, you probably don’t have the resources that a 50-100-person firm (or larger) has at their disposal. They may have multiple marketing staffers, while you might have one, or less than one, full-time person focused on marketing and business development. They have money toContinue Reading…

About Pushing Snowballs

Pushing Snowballs is dedicated to helping design firms, advertising agencies, architects, and other creative businesses find the most effective and efficient ways to promote themselves and get more – and more profitable – work.

Pushing Snowballs is a project of Content & Context, an Austin-based marketing and brand communications firm.